King County/Seattle:
Reclaiming Industrial Lands
King County/Seattle, WA
T
A h
he King County/Seattle Brownfields Showcase Community is
helping small businesses clean up and redevelop brownfields through a
unique combination of programmatic and site-specific assistance. This
assistance is based on recommendations from the Duwamish Coalition,
amulti-jurisdictional, public-private partnership of business,
environmental, government, and community stakeholders that worked
together to address brownfields restoration in the Duwamish industrial
corridor. Work performed by the Coalition led to King County/Seattle's
designation as a Brownfields Showcase Community in March 1998.
Showcase Communities are selected by the Brownfields National
Partnership to demonstrate that through cooperation, federal, state,
local, and private efforts can be concentrated around brownfields to
restore these sites, stimulate economic development, and revitalize
communities. Showcase Communities serve as models for broad-based
cooperative efforts to support locally based initiatives. Showcases
receive up to $400,000 from EPA for both environmental assessments
and to support the loan of a federal employee to the Showcase for up to
three years. Showcase Communities receive additional financial and
technical support from the Partnership's more than 20 federal partners,
depending on the community need and program eligibility.
In the case of King County/Seattle, the Showcase Community is
encouraging small businesses to look at brownfields as a viable option
for reuse. Three projects originally conceived by the Coalition have
been implemented by the King County/Seattle Brownfields Program: an
Environmental Extension Service (EES), a hydrogeologic pathways
study, and an advisory group to develop statewide risk-based standards
for cleaning up Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH). This advisory
group has since presented its findings and recommendations to the State
of Washington.
The EES is a major component of the Brownfields Program. The EES
works one-on-one with business and property owners to analyze
environmental issues, conduct assessments, and identify solutions. The
EES also provides services relating to pollution prevention and
stormwater management. EES services are free and confidential, and
are funded through the EPA Brownfields Showcase Community and by
city and county funds, foundation grants, and contributions from local
continued r
JUST THE FACTS:
• The Environmental Extension Service
(EES), a major component of King
County/Seattle's Brownfields
Program, works one-on-one with
business and property owners to
analyze environmental issues,
conduct assessments, and identify
solutions.
• Restoration of a former wrecking
yard has leveraged more than
$1,575,000 in private funding for
cleanup and redevelopment, and
provided employment for more than
25 people.
• On another site, the EES helped a
business owner design and install a
stormwater management system, and
helped train the company's
employees on pollution prevention
techniques.
The Showcase Community
is encouraging small businesses
to look at brownfields as a viable
option for reuse. Three projects have
been implemented by the King County/
Seattle Brownfields Program: an
Environmental Extension Service, a
hydrogeologic pathways study, and an
advisory group to develop statewide
risk-based standards for cleaning up
Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons.
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CONTACTS:
For more information on EPA's Showcase
Communities, contact Tony Raia of OSWER's
Office of Brownfields Cleanup and
Redevelopment at (202) 566-2758
Or visit EPA's Brownfields Website at:
http://www.epa.aov/brownfields/
businesses and citizens. The EES has been very successful and continues to receive support. Over
the last two years, the EES has contacted more than 2,000 businesses, completed 34 assessments
covering more than 100 acres, saved businesses more than $250,000 in technical assistance and other
costs, and leveraged more than $2.5 million in private sector funding toward assessments and
cleanups.
One example of this program's success is a former auto wrecking yard that has
been cleaned up and returned to use as a neighborhood store and gas station.
The EES was able to help a small, family-owned business overcome the
challenges posed by the site's contamination. The EES provided free
assistance at every stage of the project, helping the owners properly
dispose of liquid wastes on the site and obtaining a local matching grant
to defray disposal costs. The EES then assisted in selecting and hiring
consultants; helped to review and interpret consultant reports; and
made recommendations on how to proceed. Cleanup was further
facilitated by the use of newly established risk-based cleanup
standards for TPH and other information made available through the
Brownfields Program's hydrogeologic pathways study. Restoration of
this brownfield has leveraged more than $1,575,000 in private funding for
cleanup and redevelopment, and employed more than 25 people.
A second business that relocated to a brownfield through assistance of the EES
is an additional testament to the program's success. The EES provided guidance to
the business owner throughout the assessment and cleanup process, saving the owner $160,000.
Approximately $200,000 in private funding was spent on cleanup and redevelopment of this site. The
EES also linked this business to other environmental improvement programs. For example, King
County's hazardous waste management program helped the business consolidate its hazardous waste
storage systems, and the City of Seattle's energy conservation program helped the business
implement energy efficiency improvements. Finally, the EES helped this business design and install a
stormwater management system, and helped train its employees on stormwater pollution prevention
techniques. The assistance provided to this business enabled it to expand its operations, retaining 63
jobs while creating 20 others.
At a third site, the Brownfields Program helped overcome the barriers to cleanup that had plagued a
former chemical manufacturing site for years. The EES helped develop a strategy for assessing and
cleaning up the property. The strategy included private investment to perform sampling and soil
cleanup, as well as technical assistance from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to research
groundwater treatment options. Private investment in the cleanup and redevelopment of this property
has exceeded $150,000 and resulted in four cleanup/construction jobs and 10 permanent jobs.
Brownfields Success Story
King County/Seattle, WA
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105)
EPA 500-F-02-165
December 2002
www.epa.gov/brownfields/
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